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Gaming with the feels, aka emotional bleed. There are times when the story is deep and rich, the interactions with NPC’s is turned up to eleven and we become immersed in play. Emotions will heighten and inevitably impact the game and the players. We banter about the feels that come with rpg gaming.

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Sean and his wife are alive from a frightful motorcycle accident.

Event registration for Gamehole Con coming to masses on September 2nd, 2017.

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In my experience, this is one of the really huge problems that can affect a group. I like some emotional bleed myself, though it can be hard to manage for some players, particularly less emotionally aware ones who have trouble keeping themselves and their characters distinct.

I have a feeling this is hard to figure it out in a “session 0” because I suspect a lot of people won’t really be sufficiently aware of their own needs or desires as a player. If you’ve got a group of beer ‘n pretzels types a real role-player is going to have problems fitting in, or vice versa. At the end of your talk, yes the GM really matters too. It’s really easy to have power plays and other issues show up.

You guys said this at the end: Some emotional bleed, moral dilemma, etc., goes a long way. Not every session needs to have a super optimized tactical encounter, super detailed NPCs, or locations. Sometimes just stomping on goblins isn’t a bad thing, even in a pretty roleplaying-heavy game. You really need tension and release.